The team ended the week by doing the same tasks at Miss Thelma’s house that had been done at Miss Viola’s house! We tiled the kitchen, laundry area and bathroom, built a side stoop with steps, built a raised platform for the A/C unit, installed handrails on the front porch and painted all the trim and doors inside the house. This house was also one our April team had worked on, so while it was great to be a part of the finishing parts of the house, it was also sad to know that the homeowner still was not in the house yet. We were thrilled, however, to meet Miss Thelma Riley (a relative of Viola’s) and hear her plans for her yard, the house and the joy of finally moving out of her FEMA trailer. 

Friday evening after dinner, a few of the team members went to the South Plaquemines High School football game. It was Homecoming for South Plaquemines and the home stands were full! It was the beginning of the second half when we arrived and the score was 41-0, South Plaquemines. We found out later that the coach had played his 3rd string quarterback the entire first half and he is an eighth grader!! This is the team that won the state 1A championship last year and are looking to repeat that accomplishment this year. (The book about this team and the road to recovery after Katrina is in our church library.) We got to see our friend Jeremy Sylve play and enjoyed sitting in the stands with his family.    

Travel home on Saturday was uneventful and everyone agreed that the definite advantage to flying was avoiding the loooong drive and arriving rested instead of exhausted from two days in a van! Two of our first time team members to Port Sulphur have written a little about their experience and we leave you with their thoughts…….

This was a real first time experience for me.  Not a first mission trip, but the first one like this.  I felt that we were tackling a never ending job in helping people put back together lives that were forever changed by a natural disaster.  The spirit of the people was refreshing.  They had so little, but were thankful for what they had and extremely thankful for all we could do to help.

The effort to help that we were a part of spearheaded by the VA Baptists is amazing.  The people here have a heart for the task and the work. 

We had the opportunity to meet the women that were moving into the houses we were working on, and their faces as they looked round was enough to make the trip worth the effort.  The houses were not palatial, but the recipients looked at them like they were castles.  Getting back into a house was getting the people back to a sense of normalcy that had been missing for quite a while.

The work time was intense.  This was a long way from teaching school.  I learned how to lay ceramic tile.  I remembered how to move heavy stuff from here to there.  I got to use some of the skills I learned back in college as we built porches and helped get the house ready to move in.  The days were long and the work hard, but somehow it was not “tiring” since I really felt that I was doing things that needed to be done and the work was helping.  It may have also helped that staying up late during the week was staying up until 9:15.

Finally, it was great to work with the people we brought.  It was really a team effort.  No one was above any job.  If anyone needed help with a task, everyone would pitch in.  I was blessed to have such a great bunch of people to work with, and look forward to being able to do it again.

Wilton Johns

The first day I visited HRBC I heard about the trip to Port Sulphur and wanted to learn more. I knew this was an opportunity to follow God’s will for my life. So, I packed up and went to Port Sulphur with eight strangers from a church I had only visited a few times- brave!

Well, it didn’t take long to become one of the gang. I was amazed to see the camaraderie and love that was obvious from day 1. Not only that, but there was a light hearted spirit of fun that I could definitely identify with. Okay, maybe I would be able to handle these strangers for a week!

Port Sulphur is a desolate, extremely poor town. It amazes me to see that kind of poverty in our country. There were only a handful of houses. Mostly, there seemed to be family compounds where they all put their campers and trailers on the same small patch of land. Family pets (pit bulls) were chained outside on large chains with only a small amount of room to roam. Kids were crammed into small rooms that are the size of many master bathrooms- two kids or more to a room. What amazed me even more was that Virginia Baptists seemed to be the only ones there trying to help.

Our team worked ten hour days and barely scratched the surface of what needed to be done on two houses. What about all of the other displaced families living in FEMA trailers (nearly 3000)? Port Sulphur needs our help and I am proud to be involved in a church that focuses on mission opportunities. I highly encourage anyone to go. You will get so many benefits to bring home with you. (Julie didn’t pay me to say that!) 

I was blessed in many ways throughout the week. One of the biggest blessings was getting to know HRBC  people. Another blessing was meeting Ms. Thelma and Ms. Viola (the owners of the homes we worked on). The smile on their faces made all those cuts, blisters, and bruises fade away.

My experience in Port Sulphur has changed my life. I look forward to seeing God’s will for my future mission opportunities and hope to continue work in Port Sulphur!

Diana Morgan

Thought you might be interested in some of the out-of-the-ordinary pieces of our trip.  We like to call them Perks & Pitfalls.  Every time we visit PS things are different.  We can be staying in the same location, sightseeing  at some of the same places, working with families, renewing old friendships …….. But things are always different!

Perks:
1.  Our team got to babysit precious little LIllian LePoint Tuesday night.  She’s the 11 month old daughter of Bruce and Erin, the volunteer coordinators.  Lillian is the most gorgeous, happy baby you’ve seen.   Well ….. happy until the spaghetti stops coming or until Wilton walks by! 
2.  Slap Yo’ Momma burgers from Ann’s Restaurant.  All I have to say is it has to be a heart attack waiting to happen!
3.  The shrimp boil provided by Bruce.  Comes complete with corn, potatoes, sausage —- and enough cajun spice to light up your life.
4.  Seeing Port Sulphur friends and HRBC friends meet, hug, smile and it seems like they never parted.
5.  Laughing with HRBC friends until your stomach hurts!

Pitfalls:
1.  When the A/C breaks in the middle of the first night on mission.
2.  When the electricity goes out — taking the repaired A/C with it — the second night. 
3.  When the contents of your suitcase appears to be moving when you open it first thing in the morning.  Gotta love those ants!

It’s always an adventure.  But we have learned more than once that God is so visible to us.  Perks and pitfalls, they’re part of His plan.  We’re thankful for them all.